Learning in Cobweb Experiments
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No. 2003-020/1
29 Pages Posted: 12 Jun 2003
Date Written: March 2003
Abstract
Different theories of expectation formation and learning usually yield different outcomes for realized market prices in dynamic models. The purpose of this paper is to investigate expectation formation and learning in a controlled experimental environment. Subjects are asked to predict next periods aggregate price in a dynamic commodity market model with feedback from individual expectations. Subjects have no information about underlying market equilibrium equations, but can learn by observing past price realizations and predictions. We conduct both a stable, an unstable and a strongly unstable treatment. In the stable treatment rational expectations (RE) yields a good description of observed aggregate price fluctuations: Prices remain close to the RE steady state. In the unstable treatments prices exhibit large fluctuations around the RE steady state. Although the sample mean of realized prices is close to the RE steady state, the amplitude of the price fluctuations as measured by the variance is significantly larger than the amplitude under RE, implying persistent excess volatility. However, agents' forecasts are boundedly rational in the sense that fluctuations in aggregate prices are unpredictable and exhibit no forecastable structure that could easily be exploited.
Keywords: expectations, learning, cobweb dynamics, excess volatility
JEL Classification: C92, D84, E32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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